Environmental excellence at BP, an end to the RFP,

Good news, everybody! According to BP’s new “sustainability report,” the company succeeded in cutting the volume of oil it spilled in half from 2008 to 2010. What’s that you say? Didn’t the company spill something like 200 million gallons into the Gulf in 2010? According to the report, that rather prominent incident doesn’t count. Too difficult to measure precisely. So congratulations, BP, on an excellent year in terms of environmental performance. And on embracing transparency with such enthusiasm in the wake of your recent crisis.
Todd Defren issues an eloquent plea for an end to the RFP process as we know it, and asks: “Can we together create a 10 question RFP template that should reasonably satisfy any marketer looking to hire an agency? What are those questions?” My suspicion is that there’s an inverse relationship between the confidence a client has in his/her ability to select the right firm and the length of the RFP.
An LA Times story provides a reminder of why Americans hate pharmaceutical companies—and an encouraging sign that the FDA is not after all a wholly-owned subsidiary of the firms it is supposed to regulate.
Shooting an elephant and videotaping the subsequent butchery? Not the smartest thing I ever saw a CEO do.